• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.66
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• pp.29-38
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• 2023

Recent studies have highlighted the link between diseases and inflammation across our lifespan. Our sedentary lifestyle, high-calorie diet, chronic stress, chronic infections, and exposure to pollutants and xenobiotics, collectively intensify the course and recurrence of infections and inflammation in our bodies, promoting the prevalence of chronic diseases and aging. Given such phenomena and considering additional factors such as the frequency of prescription, and easy access to over-the-counter drugs, the need for anti-inflammatory therapeutics is ever-increasing. However, the readily available anti-inflammatory treatment option comes with a greater risk of side effects or high cost (biologics). Therefore in this growing competition of discovering and developing new potent anti-inflammatory drugs, we focused on utilizing the established knowledge of traditional medicine to find lead compounds. Since lead optimization is an indispensable step toward drug development, we applied this concept for the production of potent anti-inflammatory compounds achieved by structural modification of flavonoids. The derivative obtained through acetylation of myricetin, 3,3',4',5,5',7-hexaacetate myricetin, showed a greater inhibitory effect in the production of pro-inflammatory mediators such as nitric oxide, Prostaglandin E₂, and pro-inflammatory cytokines like interleukin-6, interleukin1β, in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated RAW264.7 mouse macrophage cells compared to myricetin. The increased potency of inhibition was in conjunction with an increased inhibitory effect on inducible nitric oxide synthase and cyclooxygenase-2 proteins. Through such measures, this study supports lead optimization for well-established lead compounds from traditional medicine using a simpler and greener chemistry approach for the purpose of designing and developing potent anti-inflammatory therapeutics with possibly fewer side effects and increased bioavailability.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.330-338
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• 2010

In this study, removal characteristics of nitrogen oxides $(NO_x)$ from road transport by using peat as the packing media for biodegradation have been investigated in the long term. Physicochemical and biological treatment of peatmixed media eliminates any requirement to use chemical substances and also facilitates the biodegradable actions of microorganism. Safe biodegradation of pollutants, no need to apply additional microbes owing to their active growth, and no generation of secondary pollutants were found in this experiment. It was concluded that average removal efficiencies of nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide $(NO_2)$ were 80% and 97% respectively with respect to the linear velocity 35~40 mm/s and 0.3 ppm ozone concentration in the long period operation. Inflow concentration of nitric oxide over 0.05 ppm was suitable when pretreated with ozone. Non-ozone stage was performed with linear velocity 20~100 mm/s and then the average removal efficiency of nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide were 38% and 94% respectively. Other results showed that the apparent static pressure was raised with increases in applied water content and aerial velocity in mixed media during fan operation.

• Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.164-168
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• 2001

Abel et al. in Germany discovered a new dioxin-responsive gene, which has later been identified as rpt-1 (regulatory protein T-lymphocyte 1). While it is speculated that rpt-1 may play a role in signal transduction and carcinogenesis, its roles and functions remain unknown. The present study attempted to analyze functions of rpt-1 in human epithelial cells following the xenobiotic exposures. While German counterpart analyzed expressionn of rpt-1 in spleen and thymus cells from mouse and rat and characterizes molecular properties of the gene, our work mainly focused on analyzing function of rpt-1 in human skin cells. Expression of rpt-1 in human cells were analyzed by western and northern blot RT-PCR analysis. Expression of rpt-1 as well as Staf-50 in human cells with or without exposure to environmental pollutants were also analyzed by northern blot analysis, since Staf-50 is homologous with rpt-1 and found in human cells. To help study roles of rpt-1 in human cell system, retroviral vector system carrying rpt-1 gene under the CMV promoter were constructed and transfected. Cells overexpressing the gene after the transfection showed an increase of cell density and soft agar colony formations, as compared to the control cells, suggesting that rpt-1 may play a certain role in the transformation processes of human cells. While the expression of rpt-1 in spleen and thymus is known to be strong in the laboratory animals, both the basal and TCDD-induced expression of rpt-1 in the current cellular system remained insignificant. It is speculated that the expression pattern of rpt-1 may be tissue- and species-specific. The present study demonstrated a strong expression of rpt-1 protein in the brain of SD rat model. Since there is no previous report on the expression of rpt-1 in the brain tissue, the result may play a significant role in understanding dioxin-induced neurotoxicities in the future. The present study provides an opportunity to understand a role of rpt-1 in human cell system and suggest a possible lead and basis for the future study of dioxin-induced neurotoxicities.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.440-447
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• 2006

This study was aimed at the improvement of the effluent quality of municipal wastewater treatment plant by Oenanthe javanica and Bio-string media. The results were compared with conventional sedimentation tank and pilot sedimentation plant. In this study BOD as organic pollutants, SS, Nitrogen and Phosphorus were tested to evaluate the removal efficiencies for the advanced treatment. The result were as follow: in the Pilot Plant experiment, Tank 2 was fairly high removal efficiency as compared with Tank 1. The removal efficiency of BOD and SS in Tank 2 were as a range of $7.9%{\sim}38.8%,\;14.3%{\sim}60.0%$ and the removal efficiency of T-N, T-P were a range of $9.6%{\sim}31.5%,\;33.0%{\sim}80.0%$ respectively. The removal efficiency of T-P and SS were much higher than BOB and T-N.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.599-608
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• 2009

This manuscript covers the results of field investigation and lab-scale experiments to design a double-layered biofilter system to control urban storm runoff. The biofilter system consisted of a coarse soil layer (CSL) for filtration and fine soil layer (FSL) for adsorption and biological degradation. The variations of flow rate and water quality of runoff from a local expressway were monitored for seven storm events. Laboratory column experiments were performed using seven kinds of soil and mulch to maximize pollutants removal. The site mean concentration (SMC) of storm runoff from the drainage area (runoff coefficient: 0.92) was measured to be 203 mg/L for SS, 307 mg/L for $TCOD_{Cr}$, 12.3 mg/L for TN, 7.3 mg/L for ${NH_4}^+-N$, and 0.79 mg/L for TP, respectively. This study employed a new design concept, to cover the maximum rainfall intensity with one month recurrence interval. Effective storms for last ten years (1998-2007) in seoul suggested the design rainfull intensity to be 8.8 mm/hr Single layer soil column showed the maximum removal rate of pollutants load when the uniformity coefficient of CSL was 1.58 and the silt/clay contents of FSL was virtually 7%. The removal efficiency during operation of double layer soil column was 98% for SS and turbidity, 75% for TCODCr, 56% for ${NH_4}^+-N$, 87% for TP, and 73-91% for heavy metals. The hydraulic conductivity of the soil column, 0.023 cm/sec, suggested that the surface area of the biofilter system should be about 1% of the drainage area to treat the rainfall intensity of one month recurrence interval.

• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.93-102
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• 2013

The wooden Ksitigarbha Triad Statues (Treasure No. 1749) of Shinhungsa temple in Sokcho are enshrined in the inside of the Myeonbujeon Hall. The Statues are highly damaged physical weathering which are crack and exfoliation. Also, the Statues were deteriorated by chemical and biological weathering. This study carried out nondestructive method as deterioration map, ultrasonic measurement, X-ray and endoscopy survey for deterioration evaluation and conservation plan. As a result, Ksitigarbha Statue coated by dust and various pollutants. And gold-gilt of Statue's surface has peeled off. Head part of Mudokguiwang Statue was discolored from water leak in Myeongbujeon Hall. Domyeongjonja Statue is highly damaged by insects. Result of endoscopy, there were bee hives in the inside of the Statue. Therefore, we suggest that these Statues have need to do conservation treatment on the basis of diagnostic results.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.11 no.1_2
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• pp.31-39
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• 1996

Leachate from municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill, effluent from leachate treatment plant, and ground water sample from a monitoring well near landfill site were tested for an acute toxicity. Microtox toxicity test was used for testing the acute toxicity of leachate and other samples. EC$_{50}$ values which a concentration of pollutant for reducing 50% light output from luminescent bacteria, Photobacterium phosphoreum were determined to assess the toxicity of pollutants as well as the relative toxicity. In addition, characteristics of leachate were studied and compared to those of phenol and pentachlorophenol (PCP) which are typical aquatic toxic pollutants. For leachate, EC$_{50}$ for 30 min incubation was 10.8%, while for phenol and PCP, 46 ppm and 1.2 ppm, respectively. the relative toxicity of treated leachate by in situ aeration with activated sludge was reduced to more than 75% of toxicity of the untreated leachate. Microtox toxicity test was failed to figure out EC$_{50}$ values for groundwater from a monitoring well since the relative toxicity of the unconcentrated sample was too low to estimate EC$_{50}$. Addition of activated carbon to leachate was reduced the relative toxicity. The reduction Pattern of the relative toxicity of leachate by mechanical aeration was similar to that of PCP, but different from that of phenol. These findings suggest that the toxicity of leachate may come from PCP-like toxic compounds rather than phenol-like one. In conclusion, the process of aeration with activated sludge might be very important to reduce the environmental toxicity of leachate. And Microtox test could be a reasonable bioassay for screening and monitoring the environmental toxicity of leachate from municipal solid waste landfill as well as for determining the reduction efficiency of the leachate toxicity by various treatment processes in leachate treatment plant.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.203-209
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• 2017

Innovations in the biofiltration process can provide effective solutions to overcome crucial water pollution problems. The elimination of pollutants is a result of the combined effects of biological oxidation, adsorption and filtration processes. This research aims to evaluate the performance of quartz sand biofiltration for removing total suspended solids, turbidity, color, organic matter, and ammonium from polluted river water and develop an empirical model for designing quartz sand biofilters for the treatment of polluted river water. Experiments were conducted using two biofilter units filled with quartz sand as filter media. A set of experiments were performed to evaluate the effect of hydraulic retention time on biofilter performance in removing water contaminants. The kinetics of organic matter removal were also determined to describe the performance of the biofilter. The results show that biofiltration can significantly remove river water pollutants. Removal efficiency depends on the applied hydraulic retention time. At a hydraulic retention time of two hours, removal efficiencies of total organics, ammonium and total suspended solids were up to 78%, 82%, and 91%, respectively. A model for designing quartz sand biofiltration has been developed from the experimental data.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.777-783
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• 2005

For the sustainable management of marine ecosystem in Masan Bay, we have to assess the carrying capacity and standard of target water quality. In this research, we assume that all pollutants loads are treated in Dukdong sewage treatment plant, then we simulate the physical-biological model for prediction water quality for the achievement of standard water quality. In 2001 year, for the achievement of COD 2.5 mg/L, we need to reduce COD $90\%$, nitrogen $30\%$, phosphate $90\%$ than that of the present value, According to these results, the water quality of sewage treatment plant is required to treat COD 13.5 mg/L, nitrogen 33.3 mg/L, phosphate 6,0 mg/L. If the sewage treatment plant will be expanded much larger in 2011, it will need to be treated in COD 6.6 mg/L, nitrogen 2.5 mg/L, phosphate 5 mg/L for the achievement of water quality standard in COD 2.5 mg/L.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.583-596
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• 2005

Samples of water, soil, and sediment were taken from 10 streams of Andong city in Gyeongbuk province in October 2004. To assess the degree of environmental pollution for each stream site, the chemical analyses of pollutants such as T-N, T-P, COD, heavy metal, organophosphorous and organochlorine pesticides, and dioxin-like PCB congeners were implemented using the standard process tests or the U. S. EPA methods. In addition, biological assessment using insect immune biomarkers was conducted on the same environmental samples to complement the chemical assessment. Except Waya stream (T-N; 2.91 mg/L, T-P; 0.16 mg/L, COD; 14.0 mg/L) with above the environmental quality standards, the T-P and COD concentrations of 9 sites are relatively low. The contents of Pb and Cd in samples taken from each stream were much lower than environmental quality standards. However, in comparison with soil samples of other streams, several times higher concentrations of Pb and Cd were found in locations at Mi, Gilan, Yeonha, and Waya stream sites. Dementon-S-methyl, diazinon, parathion, and phenthoate compounds among organophosphorous pesticides were detected as concentrations of ppb levels, respectively, from soil samples collected in the vicinity of Gilan, Mi, Norim, and Waya stream. On the other hand, 16 organochlorine pesticides and 12 dioxin-like PCB congeners selected in this study were not found in all samples. In particular, considering significant disrupting effects of Waya stream's samples on insect immune capacity, this stream seems to be contaminated with investigated and/or univestigated pollutants in this study.